Like Us: 117
by Owl Glow
Summary: Derek has been found but he is not quite himself.


One Saturday when I was eight years old I begged and pleaded my brother to watch him at basketball practice. He, like most others in our family, had always had trouble saying no to me and not eventually giving in; only our mother was only ever able to truly say no. That day my brother drove us to the school for his practice while my older sister went to work at the old fashioned dinner in town.

"Come on squirt," Derek said holding the door open for me to get out of the car.

"Piggy back ride!" I demanded stomping my foot as Derek pulled my Pikachu backpack out from the backseat and shut the car door.

"You have two legs, you can walk."

"Pleaaaassssseeee?" I begged, not having to do much more to get Derek to say yes. Derek knelt down on the ground with a sigh.

"Hop on," I wrapped my arms around his neck, probably too tight, and Derek stood up supporting my weight and still holding my backpack.

We ended up meeting up with Derek's best friend and his best friend's girlfriend on our way in. James and Schuyler. They were Derek's two closet friends and the ones that stuck by him even after the Paige ordeal. Not that they knew what happened of course, just that Derek had changed. He was better now, he had mourned the death of his first love and made it through with the help of our family. The night it happen Derek had locked himself in his room and wouldn't let anyone in. My room was right next to his so my solution was to climb out my window and into his. My six year old mind didn't think that his window would be locked and my wolf abilities had yet to come in. If it wasn't for Derek hearing me outside I would have fallen from the third story and surely broken something but he had heard me. He caught me in time and pulled me in through the window. We sat there under his window for the rest of the night taking comfort in each other and eventually falling asleep.

Out of me, Derek, Laura, and Cora, Derek and I were always the closest. He felt responsible for me and I felt like it was my job to take care of him. At night I used to sneak into his room to sleep in his bed with him knowing that he had nightmares. Looking back at it, I'm sure mother knew what was going on, she knew almost everything that was going on.

Derek put me down and I hugged James and Schuyler, James ruffling my hair and messing up the French braid mom had done this morning.

"Don't worry, Audrey, James is just a big meanie." Schuyler said taking my hand in hers, "I can fix it for you while these to dunderheads practice."

"What's a 'dunderhead'?" I asked as she led me into the gym while Derek and James went into the boys' locker room.

"It means stupid."

"Derek's not stupid!" I protested, "He gets good grades."

"Sweetheart, there are so many different kinds of stupid, not all of them have to deal with school." Schuyler informed me.

"Oh," I said. I let go of Schuyler's hand and ran ahead, hopping up the steps of the bleachers until I reached the top and then hopping down and running over to where Schuyler had settled. I sat next to her feet and pulled my backpack to me. I opened it up and pulled my coloring book and crayons out and got to work.

I looked up as the basketball emerged from the locker room and waved wildly at Derek using both my hands. Derek smiled when he saw my enthusiasm and returned the wave. I went back to coloring the wolf on my page. I was making it look like my mom with black fur and her alpha eyes.

Schuyler looked over my shoulder by the page. "That looks great Audrey but you do know that wolves don't have red eyes, right?"

"I know that," I nodded paying close attention to make sure I stayed in the lines. "But werewolves do. Where wolves have three different eye colors, Alpha's have red eyes and Betas, they can have either blue eyes of yellow eyes but they can only have blue eyes if they've taken the life of an innocent."

"Where have you heard that?" Schuyler asked, "Werewolves aren't real."

"Lack of proof of the existence of werewolves isn't proof that they don't exist. It's impossible to prove something doesn't exist. Can't prove a negative." I told her the same thing that Laura had told me to say whenever someone says something doesn't exist.

Schuyler didn't respond but I remember her smelling apprehensive. I didn't know what it was then and my sense were still just starting to develop so it was feint but I just registered it as a weird smell.

Practice lasted a few hours and I had spent the entirety of it working on the picture of the wolf, adding in a background of our house and the trees around it. I was going to give it to mom when we go home. When practice ended and after Derek and James had cleaned up we all went the diner Laura worked at. She was off shift by the time we got there and waiting in the corner booth reading a book.

We ordered dinner and after eating Derek got Laura to agree to let me have an ice cream Sundae for dessert. It had just arrived at our table when Laura, Derek, and I heard the worst possible sound we could ever imagine: our pack. Our pack howling for help.

We set into motion immediately, Laura grabbing Derek's keys off the table and running for the car while Derek was picking me up and carrying me out. Laura had the car started and once Derek and I were in the car and I was strapped down she had peeled out.

Laura pushed the car to its limit, speeding home. None of us expected the sight that greeted us once we got there. Our house was up in flames, the fire eating at every part of it and destroying the one place we've ever seen as home.

"Derek stay here and call 911. Keep Audrey in the car." Derek did as told and dialed 9-1-1 as Laura ran into the house.

I couldn't comprehend what was happening, not realizing that the flames were trapping my mom, my day, my sister, my uncle, my twin, and all of my other family members in the house. "What's going on Derek?" I asked.

Derek didn't answer, just hung up the phone and unbuckled my seatbelt and pulled me into his lap. He kept uttering, "This is my fault," over and over. "This is my fault. This is my fault."

Laura came stumbling out from our home supporting the weight of a badly burned Uncle Peter. I pushed open the door and got out of the car and ran over to Laura, Derek right on my heels. Derek helped Laura lay Peter down and they took turns taking away as much pain of his as they could handle until the fire trucks, and police, and ambulances showed up.

The firefighters set to work putting out the flames and Peter was taken the hospital Derek rode with him while Laura was given oxygen and we were taken to the hospital in a different ambulance.

"Laura?" I asked, "What's happening? Where's mommy? I want mommy."

"I know sweetie, I know." Laura said hugging me to her.

I don't know when I actually started to comprehend that it was just me, Derek, and Laura now with a comatose uncle left in the world. After the funeral we left Beacon Hills, left California, we even left the country for a small amount of time only to return and live in New York until we got word of a werewolf on a rampage in Beacon Hills. Laura went back to investigate and when Derek and I couldn't get a hold of her we went back too.

We considered Peter dead for all intents and purposes so after we found Laura's body we thought it was just us and we had no trouble tricking the new beta into helping us find the werewolf who killed our sister and took her alpha power. It didn't even faze us when we found out it was Peter who was the alpha and we had no problem agreeing that he needed to die and die by Derek's hand at that. After Derek killed Peter the kanima emerged from the woodworks and Derek wanted me to stay out of the fight, leaving me in charge of his betas while he was too busy. Erica didn't like that one bit, often calling me "brat" and other names.

I could barely believe that Peter had found a way to bring himself back to life and after that he became a nuisance. Then it was the alpha pack. They captured Boyd and Erica… and Cora. I could barely believe it when I found out Cora was alive and for the first few nights after Derek and I found out, we all slept in the same bed. It was something that was just bred into werewolves, especially born wolves and siblings even more so. Cora stayed for a while but eventually decided to go back to South America where her new pack was.

Then we had to deal with the Oni and the Nogistune and we lost people again. It wasn't a week after that that Derek was kidnapped and all of my time for the next month was devoted to finding him and I had to go through my first full moon since I shifted during the summer. I only took one night off. My birthday. I ended up at a Devonford Prep winter solstice party drunk and making out with someone I couldn't remember.

Then, we found our first significant lead, and it took us to Mexico. After some struggle with the Calaveras we found my brother. Only, he was the seventeen year old version of him, before the fire.

We stood amongst the remains of our home, the wood splintered and charred at our feet. "What happened to our house?"

"An arsonist happened," I told him. "It's been almost seven years now. A few months back the city took over the property and deemed our house a hazard to the city so they tore it down."

"Why would someone burn down our house?" Derek asked. I stepped forward and put my hands on his shoulders.

"It was hunters, they broke their code." I told him.

"What hunters?"

I did my best to keep my heartbeat steady. I had no choice but to lie to him know that he was in to fragile a state for the truth. "I don't know."

"Where's the rest of our family?" Derek asked. "Mom? Dad? Ashton? Cora? Where is everyone?"

I should have been paying more attention to our surroundings, I had completely failed to notice the police SUV pulling up. The two officers got out and approached us, I only recognized Deputy Parrish. "This is private property. You two shouldn't be here. I don't care if this is your idea of romance."

"This is my sister and this is our home." Derek said looking around at the wreckage again.

"No one's lived here for years." The cop said, "Now get the hell out of here!"

"Doesn't it mean it's not our home," I told them.

"You two should come with us, we'll take you to the station and then call your parents." Parrish said.

"We're fine, we can manage just fine on our own." I said.

"Come on!" The cop said coming forward and grabbing my arm.

"Don't touch her!" Derek said quacking standing and shoving the cop away. The cop pulled out his taser and pressed it to Derek's side.

"What the fuck?" I said batting his hand away only for him to retaliate and press it to my side, the entire time Parrish was yelling at it for him to stop. The cop kept the taser against my side for longer than necessary, long past having me on the ground convulsing. Parrish finally took action and pulled his partner away.

My breathing was heavy and the shock had short circuited my healing for the moment so I still felt every bit of pain, or at least I did until Derek pulled himself over to me and took some of it away.

"We're going to take you two to the station, okay?" Parrish asked kneeling next to us, "We're going to get this all sorted out."

"You're partner just fucked himself over," I spat trying to stand, relying heavily on Derek, "Stiles Stilinski is a friend and I know the Sheriff. He's not going to be happy with the brutality he use on a couple of defenseless teenagers."

I slowly regained my strength as Derek helped me over to the police SUV; Parrish held the door open for us to get in while his partner got in the driver's seat and once Parrish was in his seat he took off.

When we got to the station Parrish tried to help me out and I let him, we wasn't the once that messed with my system. I was able to walk on my own now, there was just some residual soreness.

Parrish took our finger prints so they could find out who we were and then his partner hand cuffed us to the bench in front of his desk while he ran our prints.

"It's weird to see you so old," Derek said.

"When was the last time you saw me? How old was I?"

"Seven, and I thought it was just this morning when I was driving you to school but I guess that's wrong. It's like I just woke up here after falling asleep in English."

"Last time I saw you, you were twenty four." I told him, "And you haven't given me a piggy back ride in ages."

"Why? When did it stop?"

"Something happened and we both just changed, in the same way actually. More withdrawn, serious, angry." I told him leaning over resting my head on his shoulder and closing my eyes.

"Angry at what?"

"Life in general," I shrugged. "We've been through a lot and we have every right to be mad. Though to be honest, I miss this version of you were we could actually act like a pack and take comfort in just being next to each other. The pack we're in now is not normal. There's three werewolves, a werecoyote, a banshee, a kitsune, and human. Our alpha's an actual alpha though. Never killed a soul."

"A true alpha?"

"Yeah, Peter was briefly an alpha and he bit our current alpha. After Peter you were an alpha but a Darach poisoned Cora so you gave it up to save her. And the Argents changed they're code. They're actually on our side now."

"They have a new code?"

"'We help those that can't help themselves.'" I told him, "It's never going to be the same though, this pack, as close as we are, will never be the same. Even if three of the four werewolves are you, me, and Peter and the werecoyote is Peter's daughter."

"Where's our family?" I had no idea what to tell him because I couldn't tell him the truth and I know he'd be listening to my heartbeat to see if I would lie. My best choice would be to change the subject but then he'd still know something bad happened. Luckily, Parrish saved me from all the choices and presented a new one by walking over. I opened my eyes to look at him.

"The other deputy thinks I'm an idiot for even asking," Parrish said kneeling down in front of us, "but I having a feeling if I take these cuffs off, you two are going to be okay? And I think you'll help us figure out what happened to your family so that we can get you out of here. Am I right?"

Silently we confirmed what the deputy was thinking and he took the handcuffs off. "The other deputy's the idiot." Derek said.

"How much trouble would I be in for vandalizing his car? Jail time or just a fine?"

"It depends," Parrish said, "But personally I think you'd be able to fight any charges because of the taser and how long he kept you under its influence."

"Would you testify as witness?"

"Sure,"

"Now I need a crow bar."

"Parrish, get over here." His partner ordered.

"Duty calls," He sighed standing up and walking over to look at his partner's computer. I didn't care enough to listen into their conversation.

"You're a vandal now?" Derek asked.

"I'm a petty thief, a pick pocket, and I can manipulate people pretty well but I've never actually vandalized anything. I could see myself doing it though if I had reason."

"Anything else you want to let me in on now?"

"Promise not to get mad."

"Promise,"

"'Bout a week ago on my birthday I got drunk and high and made out with someone. I just have no idea who that someone was." I admitted.

"I feel like I should be mad but you succeeded in doing something that I have never been able to do so I'm kind of proud."

"When you get back to normal you will be beyond pissed if you remember this conversation. It's just easier to talk to you now."

"I can't believe that we've grown so far apart. I hate it."

"It wasn't really anything we could control." I shrugged. Scott and Stiles picked now to scramble into the office, obviously looking for Derek and clearly surprised to see me. I hadn't exactly told them where I was going to be and for all they knew I was in school.

"You two, my office." Sheriff Stilinski ordered them. This conversation I had to hear and I had all intentions of listening in so once the door closed behind Scott I focused my hearing. "I want you to be honest with me. Absolutely and completely honest. Have you been time traveling?"

I laughed.

"Hang on, what?" asked Stiles.

"Because if time traveling is real, you know what? I'm done. I'm out. You're going to be driving _me_ to Eichen House."

"We found him like that." Scott told the Sheriff.

"Where? Swimming in the fountain of youth?"

"No," Stiles admitted reluctantly. "We found him buried in a tomb of wolfsbane… in an Aztec temple in Mexico…underneath a church in the middle of a town that was destroyed by an earthquake."

"You told me you were camping!" Sheriff said clearly outraged.

"Yeah, we were," Stiles said, "In Mexico."

"Derek's been aged backwards." Scott sighed, "He can't remember anything; we just need to talk to him."

"Yeah, well, so far he's not talking to anybody but Audrey." Sheriff told then.

"He'll talk to me." Stiles opened the door and waved us in.

Derek looked to me, asking if it was a good idea for us to go with them. I stood up and offered him my hand, "It's our pack."

Derek and I sat on the couch in the Sheriff's office and waited for Scott to start talking.

"We want you to come with us." Scott said.

"Why would I go anywhere with you?" Derek asked.

"There was an accident. "Scott said, "You lost some memory, but we can help you get it back."

"How much memory?" Derek asked.

"Your sister, you baby sister is fifteen now. How much memory do you think you lost?" Stiles asked.

"Stiles, all of this threatening is getting rather tiresome and I would really prefer if you made it so I wouldn't have to." I sighed.

"Seriously you two?" Scott asked me and Stiles, before kneeling in front of my brother. "Will you come with us?"

"Who are you guys?"

"We're the guys keeping you out of jail." Stiles said.

"Let us help you."

"No," Derek said.

"Okay, dude, you almost tore apart two cops back there." Stiles said, "You need to listen to us, and that starts with no fangs, no claws, no wolf man. You got that?"

"I'm fine as long as it's not the full moon." Derek admitted.

"You still have trouble with the full moon?" Scott asked.

"I said I'm fine."

"All right, you coming with us or not?" Stiles asked, clearly fed up with this entire exchange.

"You want me to trust you? Where's my family?"

"There was a fire, and they're not here anymore." Scott hesitated, "They're fine, just had to move out of Beacon Hills. And we're going to take you back to them as soon as we figure out how to get your memories back."

"Okay," Derek exhaled.

"Audrey, can you take Derek out to Stiles' jeep. We'll be out in a few." Scott asked.

"Sure."

Stiles led Derek and me into Scott's house using the key he had made to get in through the locked door. "We're going to wait here for Scott," Stiles was telling us. "We're going to sit quietly. We're not going to call or talk to anyone."

"Do I talk to you?" Derek asked.

"No."

"Fine, what about Audrey? Can I talk to her?"

"No."

"You can't keep me from talking to my sister."

"Oh you have no idea what I am capa— Ah! Are you getting taller?" We were all shocked to see Mr. McCall standing in the dining room with what looked and smelled to be a bag of Chinese food.

"What are you guys doing here?" Mr. McCall asked.

"We're waiting for Scott." Stiles informed the FBI agent.

"Yeah, so am I. We're supposed to have dinner." Mr. McCall said. "I brought extra. You guys hungry."

As normal Stiles and Derek had conflicting answers.

"We're not hungry." Stiles said.

"No, I'm starving." Derek said.

"None of us are hungry," Stiles said. "Thanks, though."

"Okay, well if you're not hungry, Stiles, your friend can still eat with us. Audrey too if she wants. What's your name?"

"Miguel!" Stiles interjected before Derek could answer. "This is Audrey's cousin, from Mexico." Mr. McCall started speaking in Spanish and Stiles face needed to be captured in a photo. "Oh my God."

Derek responded in the like and Stiles' face just got better. Derek and Mr. McCall went off to sort out the food and I took a step closer to Stiles so that we wouldn't be over heard. "Derek thought his Spanish teacher was hot so he paid extra attention and time to impress her. He was top of his class in Spanish. Now stop freaking out, everything will work out fine."

I left his side and went to sit on the opposite side of the table facing my brother/cousin, Stiles followed soon after and made himself a plate.

"You're not hungry, Audrey?" Mr. McCall asked.

"No appetite."

"When was the last time you ate?" Derek asked.

"Before we got back from the camping trip." I answered.

"Your metabolism is freaky high, how are you not starving?" Stiles asked.

"I am," I told him, "I just don't have an appetite."

"Eat something," Derek ordered, "Or I'll force you."

"I'd like to see you try." I challenged.

Derek took a spare plate and loaded it with food before placing it in front of me, "Eat."

"I can't," I said pushing it away, "I'll get sick."

"It's almost twenty-four hours since you last ate, you need something in your system." Stiles said.

"How many times do I have to say no?" I asked standing up, "I need some air."

I left the room and found my way outside. I should have stayed on my guard but I didn't, and it cost me. I woke up in the bushes only moments later with a healing head wound and blood matting my hair. I scrambled out from the bushes and ran inside and up the stairs. Stiles was cursing at Scott's empty room and dialing a number on his phone when I reached him.

"Where's my brother?" I asked.

"Kate's got him, let's go." Stiles said pushing past me and putting the phone to his ear.

"Where?" I asked following him down the stairs and out to his jeep.

"I'm finding out now."

We eventually found ourselves at the school were we met up with Lydia and Kira. Kira and I took off to find Scott and Malia only to find them fighting for their lives. We joined in the fight and even with the four of us outnumbering the two berserkers we were out matched. The berserkers were just batting us around like we were fruit flies, a nuisance but nothing to worry yourself about.

But that's the thing with fruit flies, eventually when they annoy you enough you take a fly swatter to them to stop that insistent buzzing. In this metaphor, the fly swatter is the bone dagger of the berserker and I'm the fly it took it too. The berserk stabbed me in the stomach as it threw me against the wall.

I howled for help, or Derek to come from where ever he was and help us with the berserkers.

Until the stab wound healed I was positively useless in the fight and all I could do was put pressure on it. Thankfully Derek heard my call and came to help, fighting the two Berserkers until Kate called them away.

I don't know how, and I don't really care how but when Derek was fighting he reverted back to my twenty-four year old brother.

"We should get out of here," Stiles said breathing heavily, "We don't know if they'll be back."

"I'll need a hand with that," I said grimacing in pain as I prodded around in the wound to see how deep it was. It still had a while before it would be fully healed. Derek was the one that helped me, picking me up carrying me out to Stiles Jeep.

"Try not to get blood everywhere," Peter said while Derek was putting me in the back seat.

"It stopped bleeding as it started healing. You know that." I told him wishing I could reach forward and swat the back of his head. Everyone met up outside the loft and figured that there wasn't really anything we could do now and Peter informed us of the heist.

"There's not much we can do about it now." Stiles said. "I think we should all probably just go to our respective homes and turn in for the night."

"I have to agree with him," Scott said, "We'll be able to figure this out better tomorrow and I'm sure Derek and Audrey in particular need some rest."

"I'm fine," Derek and I answered simultaneously.

"You," Stiles said pointing to me, "You were stabbed in the stomach and you," To Derek, "Your eyes are yellow and in case you forgot! You were just a teenager! Neither of you are fine!"

"But you are annoying," I commented crossing my arms over my chest.

"Maybe so but I am right here. Okay? So we'll meet up in the morning and figure out what the hell is going on." Stiles said.

"I hate when you're right," I sighed, "I'm covered in blood so I'm going to go wash up and then go to bed. G'night."

The hot water rinsed all the dried blood off my body, out of my hair, around my feet, and down the drain. The wound just looked like an old scar and by tomorrow morning the only evidence of my being stabbed was my blood on the dagger itself.

After getting out I tried getting to sleep for what felt like hours. Eventually I gave up and got out of bed. I found my way down stairs and into the kitchen for a glass of water. And then another. And another.

"Trouble sleeping?" Derek asked.

I nodded. "How much of today do you remember?"

"Everything,"

"Am I in trouble?"

"I think I can forgive you getting drunk and high one time. Especially after what I put you through for the past month and a half."

"That wasn't your fault." I told him.

"I know that," Derek said, "Now go to bed, you need some sleep."

"Derek?" I asked. "Can I sleep in your bed tonight? With you?"

"Of course," I could help what happened next, I rushed forward and wrapped my brother in a hug and let the tears fall.

"Don't ever disappear on me again." I told him, "I can't lose any more family."


End file.
